You know what a ‘plinth’ is—the pedestal on which a statue stands.
It has been an architectural word in English since at least 1563.
Although, strictly speaking, in architecture a ‘plinth’ is the square slab at the base of a column, rather than the column, the pedestal, itself.
The word came into English from a Latin source word plinthus with exactly the same meaning.
This is not so much a word adapted as straight out adopted ‘as is’ by English.
And further back, behind the Latin, is a Greek word plinthos meaning brick or stone squared for the building of a column.
What is linguistically interesting is how stable this word has been—it has barely changed over more than 2,000 years.
This odd combination of consonants (they don’t roll off the tongue, do they?) has been in the news.
A new statue that mysteriously appeared in London was confirmed to be by the anonymous street artist Banksy.
The work depicts a man poised to step off the edge of a plinth as the flag he’s holding blows across his face, blinding him.
The proud stance of the figure just before he marches off the pedestal’s base, and the statue’s title, Blind Patriotism, led many to see it as a criticism of British nationalism.
Banksy chooses to be anonymous, but newspaper reports from Reuters claim that he is Robin Gunningham (also known as ‘David Jones’) from Bristol in the UK.
An exhibition of his work has landed in Australia this week, but it is not officially endorsed by Banksy.
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BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
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